History

Local school boards established Iowa's first junior colleges in the early 1900s. But only 16 were still in operation in 1965 as well as four postsecondary voc-tech schools. Iowa's Community Colleges were created in 1965 by Iowa Law, and all fifteen were officially designated by the State Board of Education in 1966.

In 1971 the Iowa Council of Area School Boards was created as a nonprofit corporation for the purpose of promoting social welfare by strengthening, developing and correlating the work of the school boards of the Iowa Community Colleges. The name was changed to Iowa Association of Community College Trustees (IACCT) in 1981.

Today, IACCT remains a nonprofit corporation serving Iowa’s 15 Community Colleges and their locally elected Boards by providing educational opportunities for trustees, students, presidents and staff through conferences, webinars and regional meetings; and by coordinating the Iowa Community Colleges’ One Voice advocacy program that respects the preservation of each Community College’s unique strengths, local governance, and educational programs to meet their communities and business partners’ worker training and economic development needs.